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The Crusade
Homeworld Summary A hostile group of Jaffa and Humans who follow an Abrahamic belief in a single ‘Creator’ they are led by a Triumvirate of Alteran (Ancient) consciousnesses uploaded to the databanks of the computers of three Ancient Aurora-class Battleships. They are a vengeful group seeking revenge for the damage done to the Ascended realm by the SEF because of the activation of the Giant’s Causeway Weapon in 2014. Their primary goal is to reopen the Ascended realm at any cost so they and their followers may once again be able to Ascend. There are seemingly greater threats at work behind them, as they grow ever more twisted in their determination to reclaim that which was theirs. Population Centres The Crusade seem to have no specific centres of power, preferring a nomadic fleet-based existence in three fleets based around the three Aurora-class Battleships controlled directly by their Archangel overlords. Where the Crusade settles for a time it does so to acquire supplies or achieve objectives – currently, it is believed that the Crusade has taken a direct interest in the Small Magellenic Cloud where it has been encountered salvaging the unique alien technology in that region of space, and seems to maintain a presence there. The remaining fleets seem to be focused on the Milky Way Galaxy. It is perhaps unusual that the Crusade have not directly challenged the Alliance yet, but they seem to have greater goals then laying siege to Earth. Government The Crusade is a theocratic Ogliarchy, the three Archangels (the Triumvirate) It is not truly understood exactly what the Triumvirate are to call them AI’s is to undersell their nature, for they appear to be the fully conscious uploaded memories of incredibly ancient Ascended who were once members of the now-extinct Alteran race. Their number is no greater than three. Of these three the entity Michael Is the only member of the triumvirate so far encountered by the SEF. He is warlike and hostile to the SEF and bears little to no warmth towards us. The Crusades leadership is a council of these three who are revered by their followers (who are religious believers) as the manifest forms of Archangels loyalty to them is expected, and non-optional and they will use any means necessary to ensure they receive TOTAL loyalty from their servants. The borderline fanatical worship they expect means they teeter on the void as being almost as bad as the Goa’uld in their totalitarian leadership if not as whimsically evil. Beneath the Triumvirate AIs the Crusade Leadership is divided into a simplistic rank structure as appropriate to its Jaffa-dominated ranks. Immediately answering to the Triumvirate are the three High Exarchs who command the three Crusade groups based around the three Aurora-class warships of the Crusade, each one reflecting the nature of the AI who has chosen them. Beneath the High Exarchs there are the Exarchs responsible for the leadership of smaller sub-divisions of the Crusade, a small handful of Exarchs are not warriors and take responsibility for the leadership of technical and scientific divisions of the Crusade. Beneath both of these the generic field officer rank is Paladin and these are the majority of field Officers PCs will likely encounter, they are the nameless generic officers whereas Exarchs should be named/defined characters. Beliefs The Crusade believe in a ‘Creator’ that shares many root similarities to Monotheistic deities that have emerged into Earth religions, many of the Ascended that once belonged to the faction that the Triumvirate are drawn from would claim to have influenced those religions on Earth but that cannot be trusted as fact, ultimately this faction has proven over the years even prior to hostility with the SEF to be very willing to manipulate events to their own ends (for example the First contact with Elysia) and anything they claim has to be taken through a lens of misdirection. One of the core uniting beliefs of the Crusade is that the activation of the Giant’s Causeway Weapon in 2014 caused massive destruction in ‘Paradise’ (the Ascended realm) and that the Gates to Paradise have been sealed as a result. This is the narrative that the Triumvirates of the Crusade have sold to their followers and one that is believed, this gives the Crusade two driving directives; To ‘reopen’ the Gates of Paradise – which in scientific terms means finding a method by which the damage done by the Giant’s Causeway Superweapon can be reversed and that sentient creatures in the galaxy can rediscover the path to Ascending once again. The ‘avenge’ the use of the Weapon, which has manifested as hostility towards the SEF at most meetings with their forces. Culture The Crusade cannot be said to be a ‘culture’ in and of itself, is a collective of different cultures with similar religious believes that have accepted the leadership of the ‘Triumvirate’ AI’s in their ongoing mission on behalf of the ‘Creator’ – its ‘culture’ is one of a melting pot of all these cultures under one united banner of religious fanaticism. The mortal members of the Crusade are largely a mix of humans and jaffa, as noted above, the more warlike and stronger Jaffa are in the majority amongst the Armies officers and leadership, but humans contribute massively to the greater numbers of ground forces. Most of these forces are largely utterly devoted fanatical believers who are the result of the careful nurturing of Abrahamic religions by the Angelic ascended factions during the many years they had to influence cultures. However, there are some members of the Crusade who are not so willing participants but have been convinced into a more willing state by active ‘uplifting’ and ‘conversion by technological means (aka brainwashing). This is used to ensure the loyalty of ‘noncompliant’ soldiers and is hidden from most of the Crusade. Warfare The Crusade is not dissimilar in it’s ways of war from the Jaffa, the bulk of it’s frontline forces are comprised of Jaffa subverted to it’s cause, their Goa’uld technology enhanced by the Alteran knowledge of the Triumvirate Ai’s to create deadly weapons such at the accurate ‘Staff Rifle’ that combines deadly plasma with precision accuracy, and enhanced armour that fuses advanced metallurgy to bring its defensive capabilities to waterhouse standard. Tactically it fights in massed waves much like the Jaffa, but unlike the Jaffa these waves are usually supported by skirmish groups of human troops with lighter arms and armour who provide fast moving light troops that the Jaffa otherwise lack under Free Jaffa or Goa’uld command. As per standard Jaffa tactics there is usually a single point of failure during massed battles such as a Paladin or even a high-ranking Exarch. Unlike Jaffa under other commands, the Crusade has been known to subvert expectations by using units with suicide explosives if engaged at close range by SEF forces. They have also demonstrated greater experience at CQB and Breaching Tactics then regular Jaffa. It is not known how many members of the Crusade exist in the Galaxy as a whole, within the Magellanic Clouds they have some 2500 troops in total representative of two of their Crusade Groups so the overall numbers within their holdings is likely to be higher than that. The mainstay of their forces are the Aurora battle groups based around one of each of the three Aurora-class Warships under Crusade control. Each of these are augmented by compliments of Death Gliders (replacing Puddle Jumpers) and supported by Ha’tak-class Warships there are a scattering of other vessels from other races supporting the Crusade but these are in a minority. At this moment one of the Aurora battle groups is based in the Milky Way while the other two are currently focused on the Crusade’s controlled territory in the Magellanic Clouds. Personalities The defining shared personality trait of any Crusader is the religious and fanatical belief in the Triumvirate and the Crusades objectives, otherwise they vary, most universally their natural trait is their above-average bravery and fanatical willingness to spend their lives to achieve the goals of their masters. The Crusade are fanatics, if the majority weren’t already Jaffa (who are stoic and have a non-existent sense of humour) they would stand out in their lack of ‘chattyness’ – they are hard edged, uncompromising and incredibly conservative. They avoid swearing, avoid ‘chatty’ behaviour and expressive body language they present themselves like the sternest puritan Christians because that is what they are, they are not about ‘fun’. These are religious individuals who believe that the gates of heaven have been slammed shut to mortal beings and have fully embraced that belief. They are committed to the cause of reopening a place in the Light, but not in a selfish manner, they accept that if they give their lives they might be ‘condemned to purgatory’ but believe that for the greater good their work must be done. There are no civilians in the Crusade these are all trained warriors who have left family behind to pursue the mission laid down by the Archangel AIs. There are civilians on the worlds nominally under the control of the Crusade but they are governed separately and differently to the core of the Crusade so generally we are trying to portray these as traditional warriors. ---- Technology *'Spacefaring:' The Crusade have extensive space assets capable of interstellar flight, their Aurora-class vessels are fully capable of speeds needed for inter-galactic flight and have demonstrated an ability to transport numerous lower-tier vessels along with them allowing them to quickly position forces anywhere in the Galaxy if they need to do so. *'Colonisers:' The Crusade has been known only to establish bases where it wishes to control an asset, it is assessed to be capable of constructing long-term colonies based on its access to Alteran technology but simply uninterested in doing so as it’s quest keeps it heavily mobile. *'Explorers:' The Crusade is assessed to have access to more complete maps of the Galaxy then any other faction in the Milky Way thanks to the fact that the Alterans once largely dominated the entire galaxy with their Empire. Technology comparison Crusade soldiers use a mix of Jaffa and Ancient weapons technologies, the technological advancement of the Crusade to being fully equipped with Alteran-level technologies is largely due to its mobile nature and a lack of manufacturing resources to quickly distribute that level of technology to its servants. It is assessed by some Intelligence agents that the Triumvirate deliberately ration access to Alteran technology as to ensure dominance in the case of any rebellion against their leadership. ---- History During the Dagon Crisis of 2013-2014 it quickly became apparent that the only method to defeat the near-ascended Great Old One’s once and for all instead of putting off the problem for another thousand years was to activate the Giants Causeway Superweapon, also known as the Janus Device. The consequences of this were massive the weapons activation would effectively ‘destroy’ the Ascended realm. The normally non-interfering inhabitants of that realm quickly fell into two camps one that accepted their fate for the greater good of preventing the Galaxies eventual conquest by the Great Old Ones and those who opposed it, wishing to preserve themselves at the cost of the lesser races. The Crusade were first encountered in October 2013 by the SEF when one of their Aurora-class Battleships arrived over the planet of Colchis commanded by the Ascended being known as Mithras. In direct rebellion against the Ascended the Crusade Ascended attempted to destroy both Colchis and the SEF in order to prevent the assembly of the Giant’s Causeway Weapon and the freedom of Dagon who at the time was possessing Wing Commander Tereshkova (1IC Rockingham Team). Due to an alliance between Dagon and the SEF, Mithras was killed with the Spear of Destiny (a component of the Superweapon) one of the few devices in the galaxy capable of killing ascended creatures. Following their failure to stop Dagon at Colchis after which Dagon possessed the dying Mithras and used his Ascended form to breach the Ascended Realm, the Crusade began to make plans to purge the Galaxy of life to allow the memetic entity to spread and grow. However, they were disrupted by the actions of a small number of the SEF, but not before they subverted and overran the home world of the Free Jaffa formerly of the Goa’uld Charlemagne subverting several of their people to their cause. Although prevented from stopping the SEF from activating that device, several ascended members of the Crusade ‘de-ascended’ to survive the weapons blast, but unable to ascend they quickly began to expire and only survived by three of their number, the Triumvirate, uploading their minds into the central cores of three Ancient Aurora-class battleships. This ‘Crusade’ swore to undo the damage that the SEF has done to the Ascended realm, as well as vengeance against the SEF for ignoring their commands not to. This fanatical Triumvirate believe themselves to be ‘Angels’ of what they call the ‘Creator’ and may or may not be behind the engineering of Abrahamic religion on Earth this religious belief has evolved to murderous fanaticism with the three ‘Archangels’ that lead the Crusade recruiting from a myriad of cultures across the galaxy that follow Abrahamic religions. Recent History Following the liberation of Earth, the Crusade attacked and destroyed the Free Jaffa Council’s Ha’tak to leave a message to the allies of the SEF to not stand between them and their vengeance and faded into the Galaxy to continue their quest. The Crusade were re-encountered in May, 2016 during a SEF Mission to an Ancient facility believed to be the original starting point of the development of Stargates. Though not engaged directly, a Crusade Aurora-class Battleship attempted to intercept evacuating SEF forces as the laboratory began to collapse into a nearby black hole. Following the beginning of SEF exploration into the Small Magellanic Cloud by the Pathfinder Expedition in August 2016 extensive contact was made with a Crusade battlegroup under the Triumvirate Archangel known as Michael. In an apparent quest to plunder technology of the extinct ‘Thiel’ from the Cloud the Crusade had discovered a vulnerable ‘Machine Planet’ and sought to seize control of it by uploading Michael into its systems instead of it’s dying guardian. Although it came at great sacrifice, the SEF were able to thwart the invasion of Michael into the machine world when Doctor Alba Cross sacrificed their life to be uploaded into the machine themselves in defiance of the Archangel. Once uploaded the Machine World was able to repel the Crusade defences and the Crusade retreated. Following these events, the Crusade have been encountered a few times experimenting with the interdimensional technologies left by the parallel-universe Terran Hegemony as well as demonstrating a continued presence in the Small Magellanic cloud. SEF forces out in the Cloud have been directly contacted by the Crusade who have actively warned members of the SEF to not interfere in their quest to find a way back into the Ascended realm. ---- Back to Cultural Database Category:Cultures